John de Bueger

Last week, events in England overshadowed the never- ending saga of Western indebtedness. When the first pictures of mainly Afro-Caribbean rioters in hoodies appeared, it was easy to conclude that it was the inevitable end result of multiculturalism;

There was an interesting front-page story in the Taranaki Daily News last Friday concerning the objections of Federated Farmers to the projected sale of several eastern Taranaki hill- country farms to a foreign buyer for forestry purposes; the application for change of land use is currently with the Overseas Investment Office (OIO).

Alasdair Thompson of the Employers and Manufacturers Association got into deep water last week for blundering into that minefield where even angels fear to tread. He crossed swords with union boss Helen Kelly in an on-air discussion on the vexed subject of gender pay equity.

One of the more distasteful displays of subhuman behaviour occasioned by 9/11 was the eruption of spontaneous dancing in the streets of Palestine and other Mid-East centres as news of the collapse of the Twin Towers hit TV screens worldwide.

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An identical scenario played out in many New Zealand homes last Friday night. He wanted to watch Super 15 (or even, God save us, crap basketball), while for the girls, the royal wedding was the only show in town.

A couple of weeks ago, the perennially grumpy Gordon McLaughlin made a rather insightful remark on the radio. He blamed most of this country's problems on a single cause - bad governance over the last 30 years. He stressed that his remark was not directed at any particular party but at them all. Both have been as bad as each other with unaffordable, popularist policies intended solely for retention of power.

The findings of yet another survey report on the eternal topic of human happiness were discussed on Jim Mora's "Panel" on National Radio last week. This time, the earth-shattering conclusion was that happiness increases with age.

The horrors that beset Northern Japan, with snow falling on countless numbers of hungry, displaced tsunami survivors, should be studied closely by civil defence organisations around the developed world, because eventually, there but for the grace of God go we.

There was an interesting article about a depressing social trend in a recent Spectator. Theodore Dalrymple summarised highlights from his book on the public display of demonstrably insincere, morbid sentimentality.

Well, well, surprise, surprise. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report into police culture has found that management quality varies greatly around the country, and that some area managers haven't fully taken on board the implications of short- comings highlighted by the Louise Nicholas affair.